The field of the present invention relates generally to accelerometers, and more specifically, to methods for use in verifying the operation of an accelerometer used with a turbine engine.
Known commercial engines utilize accelerometers to detect rotor unbalance within the engine. Often, it may be difficult to detect whether an accelerometer is functioning correctly due to a broadband output of the accelerometer. Accordingly, a technician may not be able to determine whether an accelerometer and/or an accelerometer harness is fully functional, is functioning intermittently, or is completely non-functional. As a result, functional accelerometers may be inadvertently replaced. However, replacing the accelerometer and/or the accelerometer harness may not address a problem with the engine.
Known methods for determining the functionality of an accelerometer generally rely on checking for a 1/rev tone emergence in the accelerometer spectrum. However, sufficient rotational speed is required to generate a vibration that will adequately show up in the spectrum. In addition, a well-balanced engine may have very low tone emergence, which may increase the difficulty in verifying the integrity of the accelerometer. Moreover, known methods require engine rotation and rotor unbalance to excite the accelerometer. As such, the integrity of the accelerometer cannot be verified prior to an engine start sequence.